Thanks guys this thread convinced me to get a Xperia Z. Preordered from ASDA got get all those free stuff. Going to be my first Sony phone hope custom roms are as good as I had on my previous phones (HTC Hero, Samsung S2).

You will love it and even i am not the greatest developer here (i am getting better Day by Day by leaning) i will work Hard and release cool roms for Xperia Z too

Finally got to touch it myself today, woo!
The only unit in a large cell phone retailer in the center of Moscow, not demo device and I was the first one to ask for it. So I had the privilege of opening the box, turning it on for the first time etc Unfortunately they didn't let me take off the screen sticker so I couldn't test the screen as thorough as I would like to.

1. Viewing angles: seemed to be pretty poor, a very slight tilt made the edges of the screen start bleeding. It didn't get worse with increasing angle though.
2. Black level: the entire UI has this grey tint so the screen may seem bad, but actually black level looked fine to me. For example on music player widget's background which is not affected by the grey tint the background was pitch black.
3. Checked some pics but it's hard to tell. You need to upload your own images and compare them with your PC screen.

Finally got to touch it myself today, woo!
The only unit in a large cell phone retailer in the center of Moscow, not demo device and I was the first one to ask for it. So I had the privilege of opening the box, turning it on for the first time etc Unfortunately they didn't let me take off the screen sticker so I couldn't test the screen as thorough as I would like to.

1. Viewing angles: seemed to be pretty poor, a very slight tilt made the edges of the screen start bleeding. It didn't get worse with increasing angle though.
2. Black level: the entire UI has this grey tint so the screen may seem bad, but actually black level looked fine to me. For example on music player widget's background which is not affected by the grey tint the background was pitch black.
3. Checked some pics but it's hard to tell. You need to upload your own images and compare them with your PC screen.

Verdict: DO WANT

Going to order it tomorrow.

Wicked. Congratulations. I was a big sucker for choosing angles but now I see it as an advantage. People can't see What I'm doing :P.
I decided to stick to my pre order in the end. Still slightly unsure till I see it arrive. Most likely I will keep it for many reasons

Wicked. Congratulations. I was a big sucker for choosing angles but now I see it as an advantage. People can't see What I'm doing :P.
I decided to stick to my pre order in the end. Still slightly unsure till I see it arrive. Most likely I will keep it for many reasons

Its funny to see someone that is clearly won't buying the z but still be in the z forum and flaming. Just ignore the Z and go to where ever u like. Don't be here if u doesn't like it. This thing is just a time wasting. Why don't u guys go to the off topic and start the tech-war there. This kind of topic doesn't needed in this phone specific forum. And for the op, if u cancelled your pre-order u must tell people here and open a thread? How that's will help in development? This kind of things doesn't improving anything. It just dividing the community.

Not everybody buys a phone to have the biggest spec numbers to brag to their friends.
Others just buy what appeals most to them.
I waited to see the HTC one before decided which way to go. In the end I pre ordered the Z and here is why
In the areas where the HTC is better, the Z is more than good enough. Display and cpu. The Z's display is beautiful head on and that's fine for me. The s4 pro is a beast that has more than enough power to meet my needs.
But where the Z is strong, the One has nothing to offer. Waterproofing and connectivity.
I live in the UK and the number of times I've been caught out in the rain with an unresponsive phone is alarming! The Z also has much better connectivity with all the clever stuff Sony's doing with nfc.
Design wise, I prefer the elegant sophisticated look of the Z to the funky glossy finish of the One. Don't care much for boom sound because I'd rather play music through proper speakers by just a single tap. Nfc eh!
All that boom sound stuff sounds very juvenile. The stuff of unruly teenagers on the train!
Every year it's the same thing, HTC release speced out devices that please the hard core minority but fail to capture the imagination of the mainstream majority.
Sony overtook HTC in 2012 as far as market share goes despite having much weaker speced devices and the Z will trump the One for sales. The Sony makes the more compelling argument to the main stream user and so it will win out in sales terms.
I felt I'd get more use out of the Sony so I went with it.
Not interested in trading numbers with anyone to see who's got the biggest values. Just after the phone I'd enjoy most and unfortunately, the One in my case wasn't really the one

This phone is another nexus You know why !? Just because you even don't have this phone and we already got full pack of sources !....Now go and ask Samsung to do that. And let me know when you will get it. I will jump back to it.

Xperia z based on AOSP. And I feeling tthat, you know how ?......No not the "UI" man. Because the performance. Here is no touchwiz no sense just simple aosp ! And it's mean that Cyanogen rom will be like a boss on it.

Yes you will get stable build for htc also. But first wait bootloader unlock for a year. Just wait and pray :P

This phone is another nexus You know why !? Just because you even don't have this phone and we already got full pack of sources !....Now go and wait Samsung. And let me know I will jump back to it.

Xperia z based on AOSP. And I feeling tthat, you know how ?vNo not the UI.

- Clean Performance. No touchwiz no sense just simple aosp ! And it's mean that Cyanogen rom will be like a boss on it.

Yes you will get stable build for htc also. But first wait bootloader unlock for a year. Just wait and pray :P

It has nothing to do with TouchWiz or Sense. It has to do with sources, and Samsung & Friends are being difficult while Sony, who once upon a time was just like the rest of them when they were Sony Ericsson, but when they broke off with Ericsson they got a little nicer to the dev community. TouchWiz and Sense is also based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project AKA Google Android) like every single Android build out there, but the difference is that Sony hasn't hidden it behind a hidious UI like Samsung, HTC etc. It's easier to develop ROM's and kernels for Sony phones since Sony has already released much of the sources. It's also easier to develop for Qualcomm chips than Exynos and Tegra for the same reason.

Well, I very much doubt that anyone actually cares but as it's in line with the subject-line of this thread: I've just cancelled my Xperia Z pre-order.

This was with a considerable sense of sadness - I was really getting into the idea of being able to use a smartphone in the bath! But sadly, as the reviews keep coming in, the number of question marks just keeps increasing.

The screen: I don't give a f*ck about viewing angles, but the unusually bad black-level is annoying, and the poor colour-accuracy even more so. There's no getting away from the fact that the Xperia's screen oversaturates colours appreciably, even with Bravia turned off (and with it turned on its enough to make my eyes bleed); and the wacky colour temperature pushes greys and whites way a long way towards blue as well. Given how much time I spend watching video on my phone, this is important to me.

The speaker: being partially deaf, the volume of the external speaker is unusually important to me - a notification for a text or an email that is too quiet for me to hear when I don't have my hearing aids in is useless.

Call quality: a couple of reviews have mentioned poor audio quality during calls - in both directions, low volume and slightly distorted sound within the earpiece, and odd sound for the person on the other end too. Again, being partially deaf, I have a particularly strong need for loud, clear audio in calls.

Battery life: while Stamina mode makes for very good battery life in stand-by, several reviews indicate average-to-poor battery life when actually in use.

And there are conflicting reports about the quality of the camera too.

It's been a frustrating experience, not least because the reviews have been so wild contradictory. Plus, how many reviewers complaining about "washed out colours" are simply accustomed to the garish, fluorescent-crayon colours on OLED displays? How many who complain about poor contrast just haven't realised that the background of the UI is actually dark grey and not black? Are complaints about the camera based on zooming all the way into the image, and thus biased against high-megapixel sensors? Are complaints about speaker and in-call audio quality the result of people having dunked the phone in water just prior to the test? Would use of the free Bluetooth speaker Asda was going to give me have compensated for that anyway? And when the supposed "display callibration software" that we've seen a screenshot of arrives - if it ever does - how much dfference will that make to the screen? It's hard to tell; but I can say for certain that at least some of the screen issues are genuine - the poor black-level and blue-push are very obvious when trying out the phone in-store, and colours certainly look iffy; and for the rest, I just don't want to take the chance.

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